Alone
Alone is a drama book. Background Alone was written throughout 2010 but was released in 2013. The author is Cathleen Dayle. Plot Cordelia is a lonely female. At twenty one years old, she lives by herself and has no friends. She finds herself becoming more unhappy with life as the days rush uphill without her. One night, she sits on her windowsill with a cup of coffee and wishes on a shooting star, in an emotional scene. The next day, she goes to work and welcomes the new worker, Belle, who is a happy and easy going female. She becomes attached to Cordelia, who is just happy that someone actually does like her, and she decides that she will help Belle and spend most of her time during the day with her. Cordelia's mother, Arden, calls her and lets her know that she will be visiting for one week. Cordelia looks forward to the visit and shares the news when Belle when they go out for some lunch that afternoon. Belle claps happily and says that she's sure she will have a good time. When Arden arrives, Cordelia is surprised she has brought her other daughter, Kylie, who gives her a quick hug before barging into the house. Cordelia watches with wide eyes, unsure what on earth she thinks she is doing. Arden waves her hand dismissively and says that Kylie divorced from her husband and was upset, so decided that seeing her sister would be a good idea. Cordelia agrees with it. Once they have returned home and have been for a week, Cordelia gets a phonecall from Kylie who is sobbing and rambling on about nonsense. When she calms down, she says that their mother has died from a heart attack. Cordelia, horrified, instantly hangs up and slides to the floor in shock. Two days on, Cordelia is returning from work when Belle asks how she is doing. Cordelia shrugs in response and says that she honestly does not feel upset. Belle gasps and says she must be feeling "''numb! ''Yes?". Cordelia says she supposes so, and that she didn't even think of that. The next night, everything comes flooding back in a flood at Cordelia and she breaks down. Crawling to her bed, she hides in it and sits silently, ignoring the phone ringing. When she gets up the next morning, she looks a complete mess. Despite this, when she hears someone banging at the door she goes over and opens it. Finding it Kylie, she ponders aloud what is she doing here. Kylie pushes past her and shouts that she has been an awful friend. Cordelia questions her, as Kylie is in fact her sister and not friend. Kylie, doesn't see the funny side to this, and says that Belle was in a car accident, tried calling Cordelia several times, and later died. Poking the shocked Cordelia, she hisses like a slimey snake that it is all her fault, and that she probably caused their mother's death as well. Disappearing again, Cordelia is left watching in horror as tears start to roll down her cheeks. Nodding to herself, she realises that it is all her fault. The book moves one month on. Cordelia sits alone in her kitchen, with a nice cup of tea, and thinks back to when things randomly went happy for her. As she ponders about these times, there is a knock at the door. Shouting at them to get out her line of hearing, they angrily shout back that they have a delivery for her. Sighing, she gets up and goes to the door. She realises that it is her most recent order from Hebenhams. That night, as she sits on her windowsill she emotionally touches the window with one hand and whispers "Please". Moving on to the next day, she gets up, gets ready, and goes to work as normal. While she is there some random female worker there angrily shouts at her that she is a murderer. Now ''that ''night, as she sits on the windowsill she is surprised when she hears a noise out in the hall and believes it may be someone here to murder her. Going out to confront them with an umbrella, she finds nothing there until she hears a quiet, "Cordelia?", from behind her. Lunging around and aiming her umbrella, she is shocked to see a young child standing in front of her. She kneels down in front of the child and asks why she is here and how she got in, to which the child replies that she let herself in because she knew how lonely she was, saying she's here to help now. Cordelia says she must go home to her family, but the girl replies that she has no family anymore. Unsure what that means, Cordelia agrees to let the girl stay. Letting Cordelia know that her name is Dalila. Sitting down on the floor, she says that she is also lonely. Cordelia feels sorry for her, as Dalila randomly says that being lonely is the thing that will certainly kill her. Cordelia looks at her in horror. The next night, Dalila returns to her again with her quiet greeting. As they sit in the room, Dalila notes that it is a quiet house, which Cordelia nods along with. Dalila gets angry and starts ranting, "Ya should be happy! HAPPY! I'm to make you happy! Make you smile! Make you happy!" before disappearing. In the morning, Cordelia is unsure what last night meant but tries to act normal. Trying to call Kylie, she gets no response and leaves a message asking her to call, saying that she misses her sister dearly. Randomly, Dalila appears with a smile and apologises to Cordelia and they have a nice chat. As the book goes on, Dalila visits Cordelia during all sorts of random times and Cordelia begins to wonder if she is possibly going insane for seeing this strange child. She continues to be hated at work and ignored by her sister, and agrees when Dalila says that the outside world is the most lonely place of all. One time at 3:43am, Dalila gets raged when Cordelia won't play tig with her. Saying that she should "be thankful for me", she disappears in a rage. Cordelia isn't sure what she did wrong and simply lies down on the couch, silently crying to herself as she feels more alone than ever. When Dalila visits again the next night, she apologises and happily asks to play tig, which Cordelia agrees to. Once they have finished playing, Dalila says she must go. Cordelia nods sadly and hugs her, saying that she is "like the sister I've never had". Dalila smiles before leaving in a floating matter out of the room. As more weeks pass, Cordelia realises how much she depends on Dalila and her company, thinking back to how adorable her smile is and how much she wants to scritch her happily when she sees her do that. Dalila continues to visit her and gives her a necklace as a gift which Cordelia says she shall cherish forever. Dalila is happy to hear this and says that it must be taken good care of. When Dalila doesn't visit her one night, Cordelia worries but decides she is being silly. As the nights pass and she still doesn't return, Cordelia does become worried and starts to pace the room on a nightly basis. As she does so, she realises how much she is missing Dalila and sobs to herself. Realising how weak she had been last night, she picks herself back up the next day and goes to work as usual. Having a nice walk at a lake, she admires the beauty that it holds. Seeing herself in the reflection, she cowers back, realising that her ugliness might also be why people hate her. Moving on three months, Cordelia is now in a tragic state and refuses to leave the house. Never returning to work, she also suffers with sleeping due to her friend being gone. Now not also keen on food, she is a skinnier lass than she was previously. As she cries to herself in the bathroom, she slowly stands up and looks at herself in the mirror. Weakly asking, "Why?", she slumps back down onto the floor. As the book comes to an end, Cordelia accepts that Dalila is no longer going to ever return for her. As she slowly makes her way down to the lake, she decides she must do so and end the curse of causing wrong to people. The book ends as she drowns, thinking back to dear Dalila before she loses consciousness.